Egypt Supports Wisconsin
Workers

Tonight on 60 Minutes there was a story how a young fruit vendor in a small city in Tunisia had enough of the corrupt government and set himself on fire in front of the local government office in protest. They said he sparked a nonviolent revolution that is still being heard in the Middle East. Suicide, an act of desperation and hopelessness is a terrible and ugly act but even out of such a horrible act some good can come. The revolution in Tunisia spread to Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere.

Here in Wisconsin we have had our own nonviolent revolt happening over the Governor’s effort to take away the bargaining powers of state works and weaken unions. The stakes are lower in Wisconsin than in the Middle East but the base issue of human rights connects the two. This picture of an Egyptian protester that was on the Facebook page of Freedom Fighters for Equality says it all.

Repression, discrimination and denial of human rights always come back to haunt people. Easter 2007 I wrote an essay to our city and county leaders The Sweet Waters of Discrimination in Milwaukee, that speaks about the unspeakable, the deep currents of structural discrimination that flow through our city. It is not overt discrimination like that found in countries in the Middle East or in this country before the civil rights movement, yet it exists and is so prevalent that it is hard for us living in it to see and feel it.

The ugly head of discrimination showed itself today in the editorial section of the newspaper in an article entitled ”Let’s treat criminals like…criminals” by Sheriff David Clark of Milwaukee County. He shows no understanding of criminology, the study of the causes of crime, misrepresents facts about jails, prisons and treatment in this county but, worst of all, demonizes human beings who have been or are in jail, of whom are African American young male adults, in for mostly nonviolent crimes.

In the above essay on discrimination and in other essays and postings on this site, like my 2008 Essay on Violence and in many letters to local politicians I have pointed out that the country jail and the House of Corrections, both run by Sheriff David Clark treat persons with mental illnesses as ‘criminals’ and contribute to the illnesses of these people. The so called ‘isolation cell’ in the County Jail is a padded room an ill person is taken to and given nothing to do but live alone with a sickness. The denial of proper medication for people with mental illnesses in the House of Correction is cruel and unusual punishment for any human persons, especially one sick with a brain disease. Sheriff Clark presides over the largest facilities for persons with mental illnesses and brain diseases in Milwaukee County and his attitude toward treatment of inmates, as reflected in this article, makes the treatment of sick persons in his care hard to take.

Like the fruit vendor in Tunisia I have had enough. However, I am not hopeless and believe that we can overcome this discrimination and hostile treatment of human beings, whoever they be or wherever they reside. I do not know what we can do with this pervasive discrimination that Sheriff Clark represents but I know we can try to make a difference, even if we are a voice crying out in the wilderness. We must speak and act out to stop this discrimination or else it may be the fire next time.

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